Chapter 1174 Steel Trade in 1914
Rhine city.
Recently, East Africa has not paid much attention to the changes in the war situation in Europe. On the one hand, East Africa has been too hungry in the past two years, and its colonies alone have expanded by nearly one million square kilometers. On the other hand, East Africa's Third Five-Year Plan is about to be settled.
Colonial expansion is accompanied by the expansion of East Africa's overseas market. East Africa has made great achievements in the Far East, South America, the Middle East, West Africa and other regions. As long as East Africa can maintain its advantage in market competition in these relatively neutral regions after the war, even if it shrinks, East Africa will The size of the overseas market it can accommodate will also exceed that of France, and will not be inferior to that of the United Kingdom and the United States.
The United Kingdom has too many colonies with high economic value, but the United States, like East Africa, is conquering overseas markets and is currently East Africa's strongest competitor in overseas market expansion.
Sweet said to the government officials: "Last year's steel production report has been summarized. Throughout 1914, our country's steel production reached 37 million tons, setting a record high. Especially affected by the European War in the second half of the year, our country's steel production Steel production increased by more than three million tons."
"In the same period, U.S. steel production should be around 27 million tons to 30 million tons. The U.S. steel industry has recovered due to war factors, but the previous economic crisis has severely damaged the U.S. steel industry, making it temporarily impossible for U.S. steel production to return to its peak. , but next year we may face more fierce competition from the U.S. steel industry.”
"The specific data of European countries is difficult to determine because of the war, but the overall data should have increased. Among them, about 4 million tons of steel produced in our country flowed to Europe through various forms, including France, Russia, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Ranked in the top three respectively. ”
France's luck can be said to be quite bad. Its country already lacks the basic raw materials for the development of the steel industry. After Belgium was captured by the German army, it dealt another heavy blow to the development of the French steel industry.
Before the war, France needed to import a lot of coal and steel from Belgium, and France's colonial output was limited. At the same time, due to the war, the young labor force in France flowed to the army, and the industrial population was relatively lacking. Steel and other industries were inevitably affected. This This resulted in a severe lack of demand for steel in France, which further contributed to France becoming the largest buyer of East African steel in 1914.
As for Russia, it lacks everything. Its pre-war steel production was only equivalent to France, but the number of people mobilized by Russia far exceeded that of other countries.
It can be said that except for the lack of people, Russia's production of nothing can meet its own needs. In particular, industrial products are extremely dependent on exports from other industrial countries. However, Russia is not as rich as France. Instead, it owes a lot of national debt. This makes Russia purchasing power is very limited.
East Africa would not dare to use the credit of the Russian government as a loan certificate. After all, based on Ernst's understanding, whether the Russian regime could be preserved in the future was a question mark. If lending to Russia at this time, even the principal would be confiscated by the Soviet Russian regime.
The most important of these is Russia's collateral, such as mines, oil fields, etc. Even if it is obtained, East Africa will not be able to develop it in the future.
Therefore, East Africa's trade with Russia was mainly carried out in the form of real gold and silver, or in the form of barter. This caused the East African merchant ships in the Black Sea to carry a large amount of goods every time they returned.
It is easy to understand that the Austro-Hungarian Empire has become East Africa's third largest steel import and export country in Europe. After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's steel is inferior to that of France, and the population of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is far greater than that of France.
In addition to orders from the three major countries, many other small countries in Europe are also particularly dependent on East Africa's steel output, which made East Africa's steel output reach an astonishing 37 million tons in 1914.
You must know that at the end of the First World War in the previous life, the steel production of the United States was only more than 40 million tons, and East Africa is now less than 3 million tons away from the threshold of 40 million tons.
"There is still room for growth in steel production. Except for other countries in the world outside Europe, most countries, except for a few countries such as the United States, have fallen into temporary steel shortages. The steel production gaps in these countries were first caused by various European steel producing countries. Unable to export due to war.”
"This part of the market is not inferior to the European market in any way, so there is still room for further growth in my country's steel industry this year, and the output will exceed 40 million tons soon."
"Among the steel exports, special steel is particularly prominent. Except for Germany and the United Kingdom, the military production of many countries requires the import of special steel from my country, especially artillery."
Before the war broke out, East Africa had already become one of the three major producers of special steel, alongside Germany and the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom had a rich history, while Germany had strong technology. As for East Africa, God would give it to them.
In addition to tungsten, other major alloy production minerals basically come from East Africa. East Africa’s manganese, chromium, and aluminum all rank first in the world. The production of copper is also in the first echelon, and nickel, lead, and zinc are not the same. In fact, tungsten mines are also available in East Africa, but the scale of tungsten mines in East Africa is far smaller than that of the Far Eastern Empire.
This resulted in the East African steel industry, especially in the field of high-end steel product production, taking advantage of the right time, location, and people. Even the old imperialist countries such as France, Russia, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire had to begin to increase their control of the steel industry after the end of 1914. Orders from East African Specialty Steel to cast artillery and other weapons.
"While my country's steel industry is booming, imports of iron ore and coal from other regions have also increased significantly, especially from the Middle East and South America. The total mineral output of the three regions of Russia and Russia has grown the fastest."
The large amount of minerals imported by East Africa from Russia is naturally used to pay off debts. As for the Middle East, in fact, in addition to oil, there are many other minerals, but they are easily overlooked under the cover of oil energy.
The current big brother of the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire, has had close relations with East Africa in recent years, and the trade between the two countries has been rising, which has led to the further prosperity of the trade between the entire Middle East and East Africa.
South America is actually relatively short of coal. Nowadays, due to the limited industrial scale of South American countries, they have become one of the sources of coal for East Africa. After all, the west coast of East Africa itself is not rich in coal resources, but iron ore is not lacking.
After all, the west coast of East Africa was once integrated with South America, so it is not impossible for the mineral resources of the two places to converge. For example, Brazil was the world's second largest iron ore exporter after Australia in the past life, and gave birth to mining giants such as Vale.
In contrast, the west coast of East Africa and other areas of the west coast of Africa, such as the Belgian Congo, the Cameroon colony, and Guinea in the past life, have a large amount of iron ore.
However, East Africa's coal is distributed in the east and south, so it becomes profitable to import iron ore from South American countries and then transport it to the west coast of East Africa by sea.
Ernst is quite satisfied with the development of the steel industry in East Africa. He added: "In the development of the steel industry, we should pay special attention to areas outside Europe."
"Although the European war has caused the most profitable steel prices in Europe, we can also earn more by exporting to Europe."
"But the war in Europe will eventually end, so the European steel trade can only be regarded as a short-term benefit. If we really want the East African steel industry to develop steadily in the future, we must pay special attention to the Asia, Africa and Latin America regions."
"Especially for investment in overseas minerals, such as Australia, Brazil, Peru and other regions, there is great potential. Now is the window period. Our main competitor in overseas land grabbing is only the United States, so East African capital going overseas, especially in the backward areas of Asia, Africa and Latin America, must strike first."
As soon as the war in Europe ends, the old powers will resume normal production and will definitely try their best to expel the United States and East Africa again. Therefore, many businesses in Europe now make money, but they only last for four or five years. This time is enough for East Africa to grab land outside Europe and the United States.